Starting with July 2012, the dreaded agreement between the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from the United States steps into play.

Companies such as Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Verizon will be enforcing the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2011, Torrent Freak informs.

Much like in countries such as France and Netherlands, where three-strike and other similar laws are in effect, US internauts will also be closely monitored by their ISPs for any signs of copyright infringement.

The Center for Copyright Information (CCI), the organization responsible with the “education” of consumers, reports that on July 12, 2012, the scheme will be initiated.

“The members of the coalition are making significant progress at developing a cooperative system to educate consumers and deter copyright theft. CCI is working to implement what is an unprecedented effort and is proceeding on pace with the MOU,” a CCI spokesperson said.

“We will have announcements in the near future that will include the naming of the [anti-piracy monitoring] partner and details on how CCI and the technology partner will work together.”

According to CNET, RIAA CEO Cary Sherman has confirmed that ISPs are now working on implementing an automated system that can log what each account holder is downloading, with the ability to provide detailed reports on how many times the rules were broken by a certain client.

On the first strike, the customers are only informed that their actions are against the law via one or two “educational notices”. If they continue to download copyrighted content, they are asked to confirm that the first notifications were received.

Users who fail to stop copying pirated materials may find their internet connection throttled to the point where all services might be terminated. The complete termination of services is optional and so far none of the ISPs agreed to this measure.